Sunday, October 29, 2023 Manti-La Sal          

I was cold and burrowed in with my paternal human when it was dark.  It was nice and warm.

The winds are howling!  And it is COLD!  In the 30’s.  We heard about a loop that takes you through part of the Manti La Sal National Forest.  The loop starts a couple of miles south of Moab.  There is snow on the mountains from last night’s ‘non precipitation’.  The road heads up the mountain which is forested in pinyon pines.  It offers more incredible views of the territory.  We stop here and there to drink it in.  We see a van carrying bicycles, lots of them for tourists I presume.  Right, howling winds and temps in the 30’s.  Oh wait, now in the 20’s. Sounds like fun to me… NOT!

Before long, the trees were covered in a snow that looked like cotton bolls.  We decided to check out one of the campgrounds.  We turn onto the snowy dirt road that we must share with some wandering cows. Eventually, they let us pass.  After about a mile, with the road conditions worsening, we were able to turn around and make it back to the main road.  I loved the piney smell of Christmas.  MMMMM! We are finding out that these little side trips can get you in trouble!  Another one tricked us… the turn of the road was paved then it dumped you a snowy dirt road that we almost got stuck on turning around.  No, we will stick to the main road.

The views are amazing.  The road is clear, but you have to be careful when you are in the shade as ice might be forming.  You can camp in some places, but we weren’t going to do any more checking that out today!  We followed the road along a somewhat windy ledge.  It then took us back to Hwy. 128, right where we had turned around yesterday!  We actually saw a few kayakers in the river in those hellacious, cold winds.  Yeow!

We saw a Thai restaurant yesterday (it pays to go on back streets as you find all sorts of fun things), so we thought we would have a late lunch or early dinner.  Since they were not opened for another 45 minutes, we walked around town.  We saw the usual souvenir stores, and some galleries with pretty nice stuff, kind of like Sedona.  Nothing we needed to buy but it is fun to look.  Did I mention it was windy and cold?  It amazes me to see people in shorts and tank tops… I am also surprised that so many stores were open on a Sunday in Utah.  Times have changed I guess!

We ate at Singha Thai and it was great!  And they really know how to manage the spice-o-meter.  When Spouse asked for a 4 on a scale of 1-5, she said no, do a 3.  She was right!  Just the right punch, although I did add just a tiny bit more.  We would eat there again in a heartbeat!

After stuffing our faces, we still needed to get our walk in (poor Spouse, I drag him along! But he seems willing) we headed to one of the bike trails.  At the intersection of Hwys 128 and 191, is a parking hub so people can access the bike trails.  They go down Hwy 128 past Goose Island (that is why we wanted to stay there), they also go all the way south into town, and north into Arches National Park.  With the cold wind blowing, we walked across the bridge and headed up a dirt path on the other side of the river.  It was somewhat protected.  It was cold and windy and we did our time and got back to the truck and headed back to Artee. It was still cold and windy.